Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana. Supplementum - 01.08.1967, Blaðsíða 143

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The expression «Icelandic style» denotes a characteristic plant ornamentation which remained oddly
unchanged for centuries. Typical features are that the branches roll up into more or less complete spirals,
and that the small branches cut across the bigger and curl around them. There are often animals amongst
the scrolls. The leaves are small, with several lobes, and are often numerous. A three-lobed leaf is very
common, the middle lobe being broad and rounded, the two outer ones narrower and more pointed. This
type of leaf occurs on both the Grund chairs. These apart, there is no ornamentation in «Icelandic style»
in pre-Reformation woodwork, though it occurs on drinking horns, textiles, and not least among the
miniatures in manuscripts (e. g. figs. 59-63). The author has not been able to find this particular type of
Romanesque plant ornamentation in Norwegian art, but examples can be found in illuminated manuscripts
both in England and on the Continent.
Most of the preserved Icelandic woodwork from before 1550 comes from Eyjafjörður and Skagafjörður,
that is to say from the central part of northern Iceland. It is conceivable that woodwork was particularly
widely practised in that area, the richest agricultural district in the powerful Norðlendingafjórðungur,
which broke away as a separate bishopric as early as 1106.
III. After the Reformation.
1. Romanesque, Renaissance, Baroque.
The study of the carved plant ornamentation on a number of objects which can be attributed with
some confidence to the period between 1550 and 1600 seems to indicate that the religious upheaval
did not lead to any marked change in the applied arts. It is tempting to say that compared with Den-
mark’s wealth of Renaissance work, Icelandic wood-carving was left untouched by the Renaissance.
Admittedly, there is sufficiently clear evidence that the Renaissance style was known in Iceland before
1600. It must have been brought to the country mainly by the senior clergy and, like almost all post-
Reformation cultural influence, mostly from Germany by way of Copenhagen. To judge by what little
material we have, however, the new style seems to have appeared rather sporadically. It led to no depart-
ure from the older, largely Romanesque, means of expression. Both in woodwork and in miniature paint-
ings we have examples of the two styles united in one and the same work.
The piece of wood-carving which can be attributed to this period with the greatest certainty is a chair
(figs. 66 and 67) from the church at Draflastaðir in Fnjóskadalur (in northern Iceland). In addition to the
style of the carvings, an inscription on the chair back supports the dating. On each of the four corner-
posts there is a sculpture in the round of a rider in Renaissance costume. But the other figures depicted,
men and animals fighting (on the upper panel of the chair back), are very medieval in style. The richly
interlaced ribbon work may be a Renaissance feature, but, besides, a combination of vines and ribbons,
as well as vines based on Romanesque forms, occur.
Guðbrandur Þorláksson, Bishop of Hólar from 1571-1627, was a forceful personality. It was through his
work that the new doctrine won complete acceptance in Iceland, and he was responsible for the translation
and publication of the first complete Icelandic Bible in 1584. He was also familiar with the art of wood-
carving, and several preserved objects are rightly or wrongly attributed to him. We know that most of
the woodcuts embellishing the Bible edition are of German origin, but some of the initials are flanked by
vines in «Icelandic style», admittedly somewhat coloured by Renaissance but quite unmistakable (e. g. fig.
74). Some bits of vine of the same type also appear in the frame of the title page, which is otherwise com-
pletely Renaissance in style. Although one can say nothing definite, it would be tempting to relate these